Gimme Some Sugar

Blog Roll

Friday, September 06, 2013

Washington Post:
A draft resolution being circulated by two moderate Democratic senators
would give the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad 45 days
to sign an international chemical weapons ban or face the threat of “all
elements” of U.S. military power.

Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.)
are working on the alternative proposal, which would delay the
immediate use of military force and compel the Obama administration to
build more international and American political support for striking the
Assad government, according to Senate aides familiar with the talks.

The resolution would give the Assad government 45 days to sign the
chemical weapons ban and require President Obama to present lawmakers
with a plan to end the violence in Syria through diplomatic means,
according to a draft copy of the resolution obtained by The Post from
Senate aides.

Oddly enough, to the left of this solution is Republican Rep. Chris Smith’s plan,
which would forgo military action entirely and instead would “call for
an immediate ceasefire in Syria and direct the president to work with
the United Nations to set up a tribunal to investigate war crimes
committed by both the Syrian government and rebel groups in the
country.” It’s not the greatest idea — if you find Assad guilty of war
crimes, then what? — but give the guy credit for trying.

What’s bothered me about this all along is that, as far as the media
was concerned, there has been no middle ground here. The voices speaking
have been intensely polarized between “We gotta blow shit up right now”
and “Yeah Sarin gas is terrible — but really, is it any of our
business?” There’s plenty of room between those opinions for alternate
solutions. Seriously, there has to be a more rational and serious
approach than either “kill ‘em all!” or “who gives a fuck?”

And the way things are going right now, the White House would
probably be smart to start demanding solutions from the naysayers; “‘No’
isn’t good enough. What’s your idea?”

They might just be able to draw people out to craft a serious
bipartisan solution to a problem that would be immoral to completely
ignore. As it is, “who gives a fuck?” is winning and, while that’s an
alternative to war, it’s not an alternative to justice. Our choices
aren’t just between going in guns ablazin’ or shrugging our shoulders
and turning our backs. We should be working on finding the best
alternative to the two.